SHIRA H. DOMBIAK, LPC- THERAPY AND CONSULTATION

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What is Your Relationship to Freedom?

11/15/2022

 
Part of a traumatic and overwhelming experience is being forced. Forced to stay, forced to do- Choice was removed and there was only one option which is simply Getting Through whatever it was that you had to get through. Enduring it. Building mental calluses to decrease the immense discomfort that accompanies being forced to stay in a situation that is working against the physical and mental stress-response system. The stress- response system is working to defend your well-being. These ongoing and chronically -overwhelming circumstances lead to inevitable and life- preserving survival strategies in the form of  automatic/unconscious reactions, feelings, thoughts, behaviors, and relational patterns. 

Sometimes when the ongoing circumstances that you've had to endure finally come to an end…it can be an uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and an unknown kind of experience. Sometimes, for various reasons it comes to an end in an unremarkable way, and may go unnoticed. One never got the chance to fully comprehend that it is over, the original situation is over.

Response patterns become strong and habitual over time. Freedom can feel scary or unrecognizable because it is foreign. It can seem untrustworthy and confusing to someone who has not experienced a lot of it. Sometimes people stay in their prison because it is more comfortable than freedom. This is normal and understandable. A symptom of past psychological stress. You deserve to be free.

What is your default, procedural memory, automatic  response to daily stresses? What are the consequences of this? Does this work well for you? Sometimes negative or self-destructive habits are are what end up happening in a survivor's opportunity for freedom. 
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